In Bob Trevino Likes It, one those adult coming of age stories that have become increasingly common increasingly common, twenty-something Lily (Barbie Ferreira) is stuck. She’s going nowhere in her career and her social life, and she just doesn’t envision herself as deserving the good things that anyone would want.
When we meet her father (French Stewart), we begin to understand why. Lily’s Dad is so self-absorbed that he only interacts with Lily when he sees her as a useful prop in his dating life. Hehasn’t romoted any sense of self-esteem in his daughter; his contribution is more like anti-self esteem. Still, she gets despondent when he overtly and cruelly rejects her.
When Lily searches for her dad’s name on Facebook, Robert Trevino, she finds lots of men with the same name, including a contractor who lives a couple hours away. Some online interactions grow into a cyber friendship, and then they meet in person. This Bob Trevino (John Leguizamo) is a really nice guy.
Lily is getting the interest, support and counsel from Bob that, ideally, one would get from one’s father. Lily wants to plunge headlong into a situation where Bob becomes her surrogate father. Bob is kind, but reticent about getting in too deep. The audience learns what Bob doesn’t reveal to Lily – Bob’s own grievous loss and the major stresses from his family and his job.
This is a heartfelt, if simplistic, story, and it’s a weeper.
It’s entirely believable that such a chosen family could result from an encounter on today’s social media, and, indeed, the film bears a title, “inspired by a true story“. Bob Trevino Likes It was written and directed by Tracie Laymon in her first feature.
John Leguizamo is very good in a role as a very decent man who is emotionally contained and suffers the burdens of other people’s issues. So is French Stewart as a less complicated character – Stewart does narcissism very well.
I screened Bob Trevino Likes It for the Nashville Film Festival, where it won the jury award for narrative features. It won both the jury award and the audience award at SXSW. That means that most people will like it more than I did. Again – it’s a weeper.